Trouble on the county water line

It hasn’t been easy, building a water line and water treatment plant in Saratoga County. First, there was controversy. Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett, chairman of the Board of Supervisors in 2007 when the board voted to finance the water line, voted against funding. Then, there were money problems. The state refused to transfers permits from the supervisors’ water committee to the independent water authority, holding up the group’s ability to borrow money. All the while there were legal battles, as some of the landowners who were asked to give easements to allow for the water line from Moreau to Malta to cross their land fought eminent domain in court. In June, 2007, then-Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno climbed up into an excavator to move a few symbolic loads of dirt at a symbolic ground breaking for the water line. During construction, the water authority quarreled with contractors. But the job was completed and the plant went into operation in Feb. 2010. Clifton Park, Ballston and Wilton signed on to buy water while the water authority started talks with GlobalFoundries, the big contract that would make the finances work and allow the board to pay its debt to Saratoga County, pay the debt on $52 million in bonds and truly operate independently. After months of negotiations with the chip fab, the board passed a resolution early last month to sign a 10-year contract. Except to this date, the contract hasn’t been signed, and a report from the state Department of Health shows the plant isn’t working all that well. For details, see my story from yesterday.